Veteran's Day

To all my brothers and sisters in arms, past and present, I hope you felt appreciated yesterday. The day was set aside in honor of you. And me. I feel pretty good about that.

The CG (commanding general) decided to pen a letter to the troops expressing his gratitude for our service. That's a pretty normal thing for a CG at any level to do. The problem this year is that he finished it at 1045 Tuesday night and blasts it out to me and three other dudes with the instructions to make sure it gets widest dissemination. Internet, email blast, poster-sized versions posted in the DFAC...oh yeah, make sure it's formatted correctly so I can sign it first.

Well, needless to say, a couple of us scrambled a bit and put together a plan. The personal staff guys formatted it for signature while I contacted the commo section to build an all-encompassing email list, contacted FSGA to be prepared to post it to the website, coordinated to have it posted on our Facebook account (search for it if interested, but I'd like my blog to be somewhat anonymous from my unit so I'm not going to name the unit), and scrounged up some large 28X18 picture frames to place the jumbo versions.

The next morning we got the signed version after our morning meeting so I missed posting the message for the breakfast meal. I got it printed of on a large plotter, cut the versions to size, and had them delivered to the DFAC s by 1215 or so. Everything else went off OK. I think the boss was somewhat pleased. I had to call a guy from FSGA to come in on his day off to do the website bit, however. He wasn't upset by it, I don't think.

I say all this to give you a frame of mind yesterday during the actual Veteran's Day. I didn't really appreciate it. It wasn't until today, when I was reading and listening to the news coverage of the many events honoring veterans that I really grasped how even I, an active duty service member deployed overseas, am so thankful for our Veterans. In light of the events at Fort Hood, even more so. Thank you my brothers and sisters. Thank you for your service to our nation. God Bless America.

Tomorrow I will wake up and instantly be 42 years old. It's my birthday. I think I will have a bowl of ice cream after dinner to celebrate. Maybe smoke a cigar.

Sunday I am playing drums for the first time with the contemporary chapel service. We'll see how it goes. The chaplain who runs that service, CH(MAJ) Terry Romine, is a gifted preacher and a no-pulling-back ambassador for Christ. It will be good to have him around during these long, lonely months.

I'm reading Galatians right now. Trying to be consistent, but it's tough. I've never studied the book before, but it has been a helpful way to start each day.

If you have been paying attention, a helicopter crash killed two OH-58D pilots this past week. Training accident right outside our FOB. Please remember us in your prayers--safety and continued success. Thanks.